Industry continues to search for new semiconductor materials that exhibit a high dielectric constant and low leakage, to enable further miniaturization of electronic technologies. Such materials for example may be used as the dielectric layer in electronic components such as capacitors, memory cell structures, and other types of electronic components. Unfortunately, most materials investigated to date exhibit either high dielectric constant and high leakage, or low dielectric constant and low leakage and so, industry has turned to investigating combinations of these materials in order to develop aggregate materials with the requisite properties.
A need exists for ways to effectively make dielectric layers with high dielectric constant and low leakage. The present invention addresses these needs, and provides further, related advantages.